Utrecht Bans Rally by Pegida Anti-Islam Group

TEHRAN (IQNA) – Utrecht city council in the Netherlands has banned a demonstration by the anti-Islam Pegida movement which was scheduled for Saturday.

However, a second Pegida rally due to take place on the edge of the city center on Sunday can go ahead, mayor Jan van Zanen said on Friday.

The Saturday meeting, which Pegida only reported to the council on Thursday, was planned to coincide with a rally by the anti-racist organization Utrecht Bekent Kleur.

‘The right to demonstrate does not mean the right to confrontation… and that applies to everyone,’ the mayor said in a statement.

PEGIDA is a German acronym, whose full name translates as “Patriotic Europeans against the Islamization of the West.”

It has some supporters and many more opponents in Germany and other European countries.

Source: dutchnews.nl